Coventry Dining Club is joining the nationwide effort to support those in need for the forthcoming half-term week.

After a starter pledge was received from Mogan and Mogan, we connected with Feeding Coventry and decided we had to see what was possible. We concluded the more we could raise the more meals we could provide. We had our starter pledge of £250 which Coventry Dining Club matched and another £250 was donated by Coventry Cathedral so we knew we had £750 - enough to feed 100 Coventry families for a day and we also had the most generously kind offers of time, skill and stock from our family of independant Dining Club traders - so we all unanimously agreed to go for it.

Then we had a call back from Taiwo Owatemi's office and the message was Taiwo really wanted to support in anyway she could. Taiwo immediately commited a generous personal donation and whilst it was never our intention to make this Political problem a campaign with political backing it was clear Taiwo's support came from the most genuine of places - the Local Coventry MP was a former free school meal recipient so it was very clear to her this was a very real problem she understood.

We quickly raised £5000 (we are blown away by the way) so we are going to be bold and see if we can raise another five and hit our third goal of £10,000. The more we raise the more we will feed this half term and the more locations around the city we can facilitate and if the support is there then we will roll this over to the Christmas holidays. What's very apparent is that the people of our communities don't agree with the decision central government made this week and what's very heartwarming to know is that the people of our communities won't let families go hungry.

You can help by donating just £2.50. This will support our ability to stock and supply, whilst the food traders we're collaborating with will cook. All proceeds will go directly to Feeding Coventry and support their effort in alleviating food poverty in Coventry. Thank you for your donations and your continued support during this difficult time.